By Jillian Follert
Jim Larwill says rehearsing a poem is a bit like taking a car for a test drive.
“You read it out loud to see how it runs and check to see if anything needs to be adjusted,” he says. “You may hit a few bumps, but things can always be fixed.”
After years of participating in reading circles and workshops, Larwill is preparing to compete against four other local poets for the chance to be Ottawa’s representative in CBC Radio’s second annual Poetry Face Off, being held next month.
The upbeat face off format is similar to “slam poetry” events, where poets recite their poetry and audience members elect a winner using scorecards. The difference at the CBC event is that poets must perform work based on a common theme. Audience members will vote for their favourite by secret ballot.
In keeping with this year’s theme of escapism, Larwill says he chose to write about freedom.
“If you think about it, freedom really is the ultimate escape,” he says. “I tried to incorporate different images like mechanics and legal concepts to reflect different concepts of freedom.”
Fellow Ottawa competitor Melanie Noll says she approached the theme by writing “escape” in the middle of a page and then writing related words all around it.
“I thought about things people escape from and things we use to escape,” she explains. “My poem ended up being about escaping society’s methods of defining ourselves.”
Ottawa’s other competitors are Anthony Baldwin Lewis a familiar face at local poetry events like Soul Spot, Dane Swan a DJ, radio host and hip hop producer, and Megan Butcher, who will soon be leading a workshop teaching the art of romantic and erotic writing called “Women Writing Eros.”
The five poets were chosen earlier this year when CBC producers canvassed poetry circles and literary groups in search of potential Ottawa contestants. Producers in 12 other Canadian cities including Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal also chose five contestants each.
All 12 cities will hold individual competitions, using audience votes to select a winner. Ottawa’s contest begins and ends March 12 at the NAC’s Fourth Stage.Regional winners will take part in a national face off, to be broadcast on the CBC Radio show “Sounds Like Canada.”
This will take place in April as part of National Poetry Month. Telephone and Internet votes from across the country will determine the final winner of the competition.
Julie Delaney, a producer for CBC Radio Ottawa, says events like this are important because they make poetry exciting and attract new audiences.
“When you picture a poetry reading you think of people sitting in the basement of a pub being really quiet,” she says.
“This event is different because it’s a performance. People are using their bodies and their voices in interesting ways and the audience is actively involved.”
Larwill agrees that the face off format is a refreshing change from traditional readings.
“It gives a great upbeat kind of sports feeling to the whole thing,” he says.
As one of the original organizers of Step Up Slam, a popular Ottawa slam poetry event that is now defunct, Noll says fresh approaches are what help keep Ottawa’s poetry scene alive.
“Readings like Durtygurl have really caught people’s attention recently,” Noll says, referring to the sexually charged reading series that held its sixth installment last month.
“We’ve had so many people come to those readings that they’ve been squished into the venues and sitting on the floor.”
Delaney says that while Ottawa’s slam poetry scene has experienced somewhat of a lull since the loss of Step Up Slam, the CBC face- off might help fill the void.
“This will help breathe some life back into the scene and bring out new audiences as well,” she says. “It’s really going to be a lot of fun.”